Roll over to preview

There’s an irony to industrial champion Fred Dibnah’s story in that this steeplejack-turned-TV personality originally came to the public’s attention through his demolition work in the BBC documentary Fred Dibnah: Steeplejack. However, as with so many things about this great Briton, it was how he did it that made him stand out. Fred demolished, or toppled, boilerhouse chimneys by the removal of bricks from one side, bricks which were replaced with wooden blocks before a fire was lit underneath to fatally weaken the structure. It was through this process, rather than the use of dynamite, that Fred lent dignity to these once-great emblems of industrial Britain as they were reduced to rubble. In many ways he was a man who was representative of a time gone by, a working class eccentric through and through with a love and respect for our industrial heritage. This passion led to some of the articulate television programmes he made, such as Made in Britain and Fred Dibnah’s Industrial Age, where his Lancastrian down-to-earthness brought Victorian engineering prowess to life. This reissued bookazine takes in Fred’s early years through to the steam spectacle of his funeral; his glorious eccentricities such as the sinking of a mine shaft in his back garden, being made an MBE just months before his death, personal anecdotes from friends, his fascination with steam tractors and a fabulous collection of images of Fred at work with the loves of his life.